"I think M*A*S*H was probably my favorite. [My wife's] favorite is The Dick Van Dyke Show, which she sometimes now watches [in reruns]. I have to say The Dick Van Dyke Show ranks right up there.''...

'There are shows [my wife and I] agree on. We like the reruns of Seinfeld. I really like Curb Your Enthusiasm. I kind of like Dexter, too, although it certainly has a macabre side to it. I'll tell you that [my wife] likes Big Love — I haven't watched it much, but she enjoys that. And I like The Wire a lot, too. That's a great show.''

Well I guess that almost seals my support for McCain. He and I had similar Bambi experiences and watch many of the same shows. I could see myself sitting down with the man, eating some hot wings, and enjoying a nice cold A-B beverage some evening while watching one of our mutual television interests.

Bizarre responses. Obama's previously expressed his love for The Wire, but not this time. The favorite fictional president response is also interesting to me. I'd have to re-watch The Contender, but all I really remember is how much Jeff Bridges enjoyed ordering food at any hour from the White House staff.

Speaking as a Yankee, Giant, Knicks and Ranger Fan, the poor sad sack losers of the tri-state area are the fans of the lowly Mets, Jets, Nets, and Islanders. Look, Doyle is big time Mets fan so that should tell you something.

Jets fans are famous for batting around an inflatable doll instead of a beach ball in the stands and for hanging around one exit under the stands, smoking weed and screaming "show us your tits" at every broad that walks by. Classy.

Also, in the Dick Van Dyke show there's an episode "A Show of Hands" from 1965 in which he and Laura accidentally dye their hands black. Laughs ensue when they are embarrassed to be part Negro.

It's been many years, but as I remember it, the embarrassment was that Rob had to go give a speech to the NAACP, and going with hands dyed black would look like a very odd gesture--but wearing gloves would be worse.

So Obama's trying to seem comfortably mainstream (at the risk of being a bit dull) -- not taking the risk of naming something that might be the cinematic equivalent of arugula, while McCain is trying to seem hip and edgy (while not trying to pretend he's not old).

No surprise -- and yet, McCain's answers seem more genuine, somehow. I do see him watching the shows and movies he mentions. I suspect he got a kick out of his Wedding Crashers cameo.

McCain is a fan of "The Wire"? Damn, now I wish I'd voted for him in that poll. That's the best dramatic series in the history of television -- much better than The Sopranos, although The Sopranos was certainly good.

I'll tell you that [my wife] likes Big Love

That'll make for some uncomfortable dinner conversations with the Romneys if Mitt's the VP candidate.

Although actually that show makes the LDS look really attractive. The polygamists are clearly portrayed as NOT being part of the LDS -- they spend a lot of effort concealing themselves from them -- and the polygamist cult is portrayed as a bunch of criminal nuts. The Mormons, on the other hand, are portrayed as nice, polite, and community-oriented, if perhaps a little relentless about getting people to join the church. Which in my experience is pretty much accurate.

MM said: paddy, I've not seen a movie in a theater in more than a year either.

You're not running for The Highest Office In The Land, dammit!

Actually, what gives me pause is the idea that "Dexter" has a macabre side.

It doesn't "have a macabre side", it's totally and completely macabre in inception and execution. Even the normal human interactions that aren't, by themselves, macabre are basically overshadowed by the fact that there's a serial killer standing right there!

Anyone who loves M*U*S*H obviously has no respect for the military, nor any understanding of service.

The show (and movie) only existed to protest the Vietnam war. Altman was too much of a panzy coward to come right out and make a show set IN Vietnam, so he went back a extra 20 years and found some OTHER war where America didn't win.

His characters are mockeries of service. The generals are always either corrupt or insane. The patriotic career men (and women) are bumbling buffoons with questionable morals. We are meant to be made sympathetic to people who would be completely derilict in their duties in order to avoid service.

MUSH is the most anti-American, anti-Military, unpatriotic show, ever.

No wonder it did well with the liberal media during the end of the Vietnam war, when all we had were 3 network channels and PBS. And to be honest, when I was a 9 year old, I loved to watch it. But that was when I was 9. Now that I am 30 years older and a proud veteran, I have a different idea of what is funny. No doubt McCain, who, as he jokes today was "tied up" when MUSH first hit movie and TV screens, probably also had a different idea about the show than others of the era.

A new version of MUSH today would probably win critical acclaim and many Emmy/Oscar nods, but would completely FLOP with the public - like virually ever war movie made since GWB took office. Mainstream America just doesn't hate the military.

So no, I am not at all surprised that MUSH is so high on Obama's list. It simply reinforces my belief that Obama is an America-hating, military-hating boob who is unfit to be Commander in Chief.

A pander? I don't think so. "M*A*S*H" ran for 11 years. (And BTW, the movie never specified where it took place, at least according to Robert Altman. I can't recall, myself.) Obama's the perfect age to consider that his favorite show. ("The Dick Van Dyke" show holds up pretty well for a '60s sitcom, but it's a little odder as a choice.)

I'd say McCain's as more likely to be a pander, except that he probably didn't watch much TV as a kid, and was otherwise occupied as a young adult. So he probably doesn't have the same sort of affinity for TV shows of his youth that the newer TV-raised generations have.

Thanks, blake, for the diasambiguation -- when I saw "Dexter," I thought of this Dexter, the one with the Laboratory, not that other one, whom I would rather not think of at all. And, what Revenant said about "The Wire."

First off, let me say that the whole pop culture quiz was interesting. Call me naive, but I don't believe either one was pandering. Why would Obama pander by admitting watching Dick van Dyke? What does he gain? I'm sure, for some reason alien to me, he actually enjoys the show.

Gullyborg, M.A.S.H was long before my time, and I never really watched the reruns, but isn't it at all possible for one to like M.A.S.H, without being anti-military? The show lasted for 11 years, and did pretty well from what I understand. The audience had to be larger than left-wing intellectuals and anti-war hippies, don't you think?

Let me also add that 24 is infinitely better than The Contender (which was good, BTW), The Wire may be one of the best executed and gripping dramas ever, and David Palmer is my favorite fictitous President.

but isn't it at all possible for one to like M.A.S.H, without being anti-military?

MO is that the best episodes had little to do with the military at all -- Capt. Tuttle, Adam's Ribs, poker games. Or they were the episodes that were anti-bureaucracy (the incubator). When MASH got preachy about war it was boring.

It helps to read the interview questions, Sloan, rather than Althouse's inaccurate re-frame. Obama was asked about shows he watched as a child. I don't see how there's a pander there. MASH was a really popular show.

Yeah. There were 2 other channels and they didn't always air stuff as epic as "Kolchak: The Night Stalker."No internet. No TiVo. No Netflix. No DVDs, VHS, Betamax. No Wii.There was, however, Pong - at the bowling alley or diner. Arcades came along eventually. As did Earth Shoes.